Clarence Valley North-South Divide throws up yet another letter

Forced local government amalgamation in the Clarence Valley, followed by an [expletive deleted] administration period from which the council is still recovering, fractured any hope of a united population and the current set of shire councillors is doing its best to further entrench and widen that fracture.

Nowhere is that rift more obvious than in the letters-to-the-editor section of local newspapers.

Here is one of the latest published in The Daily Examiner on 4 June 2013:

It would be nice if the people of Grafton, who have such a down on the Lower Clarence would check their facts. Yes, we do have two swimming pools, but my older children learnt to swim in the old quarry pool before the rock pool was built in about 1967/68. We (the people of Yamba) began to work for a heated community pool only to have a newcomer to town who wanted a hydro pool at the Maclean Hospital, so our efforts went to help her, then Maclean pool was enlarged from 25m to 50m, so we helped again.   Then we went flat out to raise funds for our heated pool and much volunteer labour went into that pool. As regards to our developments having proper footpaths and guttering, well I think Maclean Council had much to do with that. It did not cost $1 million dollars to fix our rock pool, not nearly as much as the South Grafton pool. Please think before your next rave. I have a little knowledge of local government as my late husband was a Maclean councillor for eight and a half years. The extra six months was to fight against amalgamation - but we lost.   Marie Rheinberger, Yamba

Abbott and Asbestos

Hansard 3 June 2013:

Mr ABBOTT (Warringah—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): My question is to the Prime Minister. I remind her that her government has committed some $50 million to advertising the National Broadband Network. Does the Prime Minister agree that this $50 million could have been better spent ensuring that communities in Western Sydney, Ballarat, Adelaide, Perth and Tasmania were protected from exposure to asbestos resulting from the National Broadband Network rollout?

Coastal Leader 4 June 2013:

Telstra tried to fast-track compensation arrangements for its employees exposed to asbestos but was rebuffed by Tony Abbott's own department back in 2001.

With the opposition on Monday leading a parliamentary attack on the government over its alleged lack of urgency in addressing asbestos discovered in Telstra junction pits being handed over to the NBN, Fairfax Media has learnt the giant telco wanted to create an independent body to accelerate compensation and sought approval from the Department of Workplace Relations.

However, the department, then under the ministerial leadership of Mr Abbott, rejected the plan.

The emergence of Telstra's previous attempt to get on the front foot on the issue comes as the telco agreed to take ''ultimate responsibility'' to deal with asbestos used in its infrastructure.

Background

The Age 17 August 17 2005:

The Federal Government's joint party room has approved the full sale of Telstra, Prime Minister John Howard said today. The sale is expected to take place in 2006.

Hansard  7 February 2006
Mr Andren asked the Minister representing the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, in writing, on 15 September 2005:

(1)   How much asbestos has been purchased by Telstra from James Hardies Industries and how much has been used.

(2)   How many of Telstra’s underground installations and exchanges contain asbestos or products manufactured from asbestos.

(3)   How frequently do Telstra employees or contractors come into contact with asbestos in the course of carrying out maintenance in exchanges or underground installations.

(4)   What safety procedures are in place to protect Telstra’s employees and contractors against exposure to asbestos in the course of carrying out maintenance in exchanges or underground installations.

(5)   How many cases of asbestosis amongst current and former Telstra employees and contractors have been reported to date.

Mr McGauran (Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) —The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts has provided the following answer, based on advice provided by Telstra, to the honourable member’s question:

(1)   Telstra and its predecessors, Post Master General and Telecom, have not purchased any asbestos from James Hardies Industries since approximately 1986. Telstra’s predecessors purchased cement pits and pipes containing asbestos (approximately 5-15% asbestos content depending on the type of product) from Hardies from about 1955 until about 1986 when these products were replaced with plastic alternatives. This material was purchased by government tender and Telstra is unable to provide details of the exact quantities purchased or used. Telstra has also noted that it is also likely that the vehicles used by Telstra’s predecessors contained asbestos friction products or brake linings purchased from Hardie Ferodo and Better Brakes, which was part of the James Hardie group of companies, as these were available in the public domain.

(2)   The Telstra network still contains pits made of cement with some asbestos content. These pits and pipes are comprised of asbestos cement with the pits containing approximately 5-15% asbestos bonded in a cement and silica matrix and the pipes containing 15% asbestos bonded in a cement and silica matrix. As this asbestos is bound to the cement and in low concentrations it does not present a hazard, unless friable (where the fibres become loose and airborne). In the case of pits and pipes, (as they are bound in a cement matrix) the asbestos fibres are not likely to become friable unless ground by a powered machine such as an electric grinder. Where exchange buildings contain in situ asbestos, these are documented and managed as per the processes outlined in the response to part (4). This is similar to other public and private buildings where in situ asbestos is present.

(3)   Telstra employees and contractors will come into contact from time to time with material containing asbestos during maintenance of underground installations or buildings. All contact is regulated by the asbestos management processes referred to in the response to part (4).

(4)   Telstra is required to - and does - comply with requirements of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) Code of Practice on Asbestos. Compliance is enforced by the Safety and Rehabilitation Commission (SRC) through its operational arm Comcare Australia. Briefly, the processes for the management of asbestos in Telstra involves:

• The maintenance of an Asbestos Register at all exchanges that have asbestos;
• All pits and pipes which are not plastic are treated as containing asbestos;
• The regular inspection, maintenance or removal (if necessary) of the asbestos
• All employees and contractors to observe strict guidelines for working in proximity to, handling or disposing of asbestos (eg. appropriate training and personal protective clothing such as gloves, respirators and disposal clothing are provided to carry out this work); and
• Final disposal to be managed by licensed asbestos removal contractors.

All other contractors are also required to provide evidence of compliance with the relevant State and Federal occupational health and safety legislation and contractors meet regularly with Telstra to review compliance with this legislation.

(5)   Telstra has kept detailed records as to all asbestos related claims nationally from 2000. Since that time there have been 10 claims where asbestosis was alleged to have developed from exposure to asbestos during the employ of Telstra’s predecessors.

The Stars Sing the Blues

Image from Stellar Planet

A hat tip to @upjulie for finding this website where x-ray signals from the stars are turned into music…..

Star Songs: Infusing Noise With Meaning:

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/sed/projects/star_songs/music_audio/signal1.ogg

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/sed/projects/star_songs/music_audio/blues.ogg

Quote of the Week

“You ring Friday nights when only the ill, the old, the loveless, the friendless and mad are at home and, sure, you'll get a Liberal majority.” {Bob Ellis in Granny Herald on phone polling 4^th June 2013} OUCH!

June 2013 Memo to Ethical Investors re ERM Power Limited

Since ERM Power Limited decided to invite itself into the Northern Rivers by way of investment in coal seam gas exploration and mining companies Metgasco, Clarence Morton Resources and Red Sky Energy it has become a company which is willing to override the concerns and wishes of local communities.

ERM is currently in a trading halt as it attempts to raise $60 million by way of placement and SPP in order to reduce debt and create working capital to progress its business plans, which include its interests in NSW North Coast coal seam gas production, reserves and exploration.

Ethical investors are asked to consider what participating in this offer may mean to established regional economies, water security, agriculture, lifestyle and amenity across New South Wales by way of potential adverse impacts associated with creating and operating gas fields.

A grace note from the Twitterverse

Abbott and Murdoch exposed

Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd The Australian 1 June 2013:

A growing number of the nation's estimated five million recreational anglers are furious that laws set to come into effect next year will lock them out of 1.3 million square kilometres of ocean. Some fear the bans could eventually extend to include iconic fishing spots such as Sydney Harbour and Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay.

With a view to the power of the swinging vote, up to 1000 anglers are expected to gather tomorrow at Torquay fishing club, in the heartland of the nation's most marginal seat -- Corangamite in Victoria, held by Labor's Darren Cheeseman by just 0.4 per cent -- to demand change.....

ABC Radio AM 4 June 2013:

GREG HUNT: Well unfortunately this particular process hasn't had genuine consultation and been based on deep science. 

From no_filter_Yamba 4 June 2013:

Hansard 4 June 2013:

Mr BURKE (Watson—Minister for the Arts,

Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water and Population and Communities) (14:45):

On the weekend I saw a big article in The Australian that told me that there were going to be up to 1,000 people rallying in Torquay who were going to be very angry about this process. After The Australian article—and I will table it—there was no media coverage of it at all. Then I discovered the reason must be the funny way 1,000 people was calculated. Those numbers were in some way short—they used the shadow Treasurer to do the figures, clearly. Why would so few people turn up to the rally?

What the shadow minister for the environment did not tell them was that when they were making their speeches from the tinny they were speaking from—they spoke in a tinny, though admittedly it was on land—they did not let people know that if you wanted to go from that rally to an area where you are not allowed to fish, you would have to go out, turn left, go across the Bass Strait and, after 460 kilometres, you would get to the first place where you could not fish, a place where the no-fishing zone was put in place in 2007 when the member for Wentworth was the minister for the environment. The nearest restriction on recreational fishing was put in place by the Howard government when they were in charge.

This is a process where the science it has been based on was commenced under the Howard years. Some of these plans on the inside cover have the happy smiling face of the member for Wentworth and the member for Dawson for science. As for the process of consultation when they say, 'No consultation happened at all,' there were five separate rounds of consultation and three quarters of a million submissions engaged—in a process that works. What we found for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park work which has now come back with restrictions put in place by the Howard government that they now conveniently forget, is that fish stocks do improve. Coral trout numbers are six times what they used to be. Crown of thorns starfish are at a quarter of the levels in the protected zones that they are in the rest of the park. It is a process which for 20 years had had bipartisan support, and which the opposition are hoping will come to nothing tonight... [my red bolding]

The Liberal-Nationals Coalition lost their six motions to disallow the Commonwealth Maritime Reserve Network Management Plans by one vote each time and Northern Rivers readers will recognise the Nationals MP whose name was on these motions as the same John Cobb who (as Assistant Minister for the Environment and Water Resources in 2007) supported in the unsuccessful Howard-Turnbull push to dam and divert east coast rivers - in particular, the Clarence River.

These disalllowance motions may have been unsuccessful, however they offer a window on the attitude an Abbott-led government would have to marine reserves and attempts to ensure sustainable fish stocks in Australian waters.